Irvine, Matthew Bell, C.B., C.M.G., Commissary-General, Quebec, was born on the 7th January, 1832, in Quebec city. He is descended from an ancestry that have left their mark on Canada. Adam Irvine, son of Adam and grandson of Peter Irvine (spelt Irving in the Orcadian records of 1730), of Garson, in the Orkney islands, North of Scotland, came to Canada soon after the conquest, and was accidentally killed at Quebec, on the 7th May, 1776. His son, James Irvine, born in England in 1766, was a member of the mercantile firm of Irvine, McNaught & Co., of Quebec, and for a number of years was a member of both the Executive and Legislative councils of Lower Canada. In 1822 this gentleman was commissioned president of the Court of Appeal of the Executive Council in the absence of the chief justices of Montreal and Quebec; and in 1824 was nominated by letters-patent under the Great Seal, arbitrator for Lower Canada to adjust the duties between Upper and Lower Canada. He served in the militia of the province from 1803 until 1822, when he retired with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. James Irvine married on the 13th July, 1801, Anne, eldest daughter of John George Pyke, of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and had issue two sons, John George and James. The latter died young; and the Hon. James Irvine died at Quebec on the 27th September, 1829. John George Irvine, the father of the subject of our sketch, was born at Quebec on the 31st December, 1802, and passed his early life in the firm of Irvine, McNaught & Co. In 1837, on the outbreak of the rebellion, he was appointed a captain in the Royal Quebec Volunteers. In 1838 he was gazetted a lieutenant-colonel and deputy-quartermaster-general of militia; and on the 5th November of the same year was commissioned major of the Queen’s Volunteers, a regiment raised for active service. He was appointed extra Provincial A.D.C. to the governor-general of Canada on the 14th November, 1851; Provincial A.D.C. on the 1st November, 1852; and principal A.D.C. on the 2nd October, 1868. On the occasion of the visit of the Prince of Wales in 1860, Colonel Irvine was nominated acting adjutant-general to attend on his Royal Highness during his official tour in Canada. He married, on the 4th February, 1826, Anne, third daughter of the Hon. Matthew Bell, of Three Rivers, and had issue four sons and four daughters. He died at Quebec on the 1st November, 1871, in the sixty-ninth year of his age. Of this family three sons and two daughters still survive; namely, Hon. George Irvine, judge of the Vice-Admiralty Court, Quebec; Acheson Gosford Irvine, lieutenant-colonel and late chief Commissioner of the North-West Mounted Police; Matthew Bell Irvine, commissary-general, Quebec; Eliza Inglis Irvine, and Frances Isabella Irvine. Commissary-General Irvine was educated at the High School of Quebec. On the 30th March, 1848, when a mere lad, he joined her Majesty’s Commissariat department of the army, and in this branch of the service he remained until the 1st of April, 1881, when he retired with the honorary rank of commissary-general. During this period he served in Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America, and Australia. He was present in Turkey and the Crimea during the latter part of the Eastern campaign, in 1855-56. He was created a companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George, for services as senior control officer on the Red River expedition of 1870, under Colonel (now Lord) Wolseley; and was also created a companion of the Most Honorable Order of the Bath in 1874, for services as senior control officer during the Ashantee campaign under Major-General Sir Garnet Joseph (now Lord) Wolseley, K.C.M.G., C.B. In religion he is an adherent of the Church of England. He was married at Bayswater, London, England, on the 2nd June, 1875, to Charlotte Feodore Louisa Augusta, only child of the Rev. N. Guerout, of Berthier,en haut, Quebec, and widow of George A. L. Wood, of Quebec.
Wilson, Daniel, LL.D., F.R.S., President of the University of Toronto, was born in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1816. His father, Archibald Wilson had a large family. One of his sons, Dr. George Wilson, well known as an eminent chemist, was for some time professor of technology in the University of Edinburgh, and died in 1859. Dr. Daniel Wilson, the subject of our sketch, after passing through the High School, entered the University of his native city; and when he had reached his twenty-first year, went to London, England, to push his fortune. After a residence there of several years, during which he relied for support chiefly on the reward of his literary labors, he again turned north, and continued to wield his pen in Edinburgh, where he soon became distinguished for his ardent love for archæological studies. In his twenty-seventh year he came to Canada, at theinsistance of the historian Hallam, who, with Lord Elgin, the then governor-general of Canada, warmly recommended the appointment of the younglittérateurand zealous secretary of the Scottish Society of Antiquaries to the chair of history and English literature in University College, Toronto. The removal to Canada was a grave step in itself. But it was more than this when it broke in, as it did, upon serious studies pursued with great ardor, severed the dearest ties, social and professional, and withdrew from a promising field of labor one who was not only fast making his way to the front, but whose genuine abilities and true scientific devotion, had he remained in it, would doubtless have gained him rich pecuniary rewards, with many accompanying honors. However, to Canada he came, and one of the interesting as well as valuablesouvenirsof his parting with his Scottish friends and scientific associates is a costly service of silver in the learned doctor’s possession, the inscription on which bears the testimony of his associates in the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, “To Dr. Wilson’s intelligent and faithful labors as secretary, and to their admiration of his great learning and genius so successfully devoted to the investigation of the archæology of Scotland.” Devoted student as he was of archæology, and much as he had done in Scotland to enrich the subject by laborious local research, Dr. Wilson, in coming to Canada, found a wide field for its pursuit on the American continent; and much has he assiduously gathered in the interval to add to the stores of information and reasonable conjecture in this interesting branch of science. The fruit of this is abundantly found in important treatises on the subject which have come from his pen, as well as in the many occasional papers contributed to the scientific journals and transactions of learned societies in both hemispheres. The number and bulk of the latter would fill many portly volumes, and are in themselves a monument of intellectual labor. In the brief space at our disposal we can give but a bald enumeration of the more important works which have come from Dr. Wilson’s pen. The first of these was “Memorials of Edinburgh in the Olden Time,” a work in two volumes, published in 1847, with illustrations from the author’s facile pencil. This interesting work, with his “Reminiscences of Old Edinburgh,” published in 1878, reveal Dr. Wilson’s tastes as an antiquary and his varied accomplishments in undertaking the work of tracing the history, antiquities and local traditions of the Scottish metropolis. A contemporary critic affirms of the first of these books, that “these volumes will do the author honor in his native city so long as the ancient capital of Scotland stands.” In 1851 appeared a kindred but more ambitious work in the wider field of Scottish antiquities, entitled “The Archæology and Prehistoric Annals of Scotland.” This scholarly and elaborate production drew from the historian Hallam the criticism that it was the most scientific treatment of the archæological evidences of primitive history which had ever been written. The reviewers were also equally laudatory, a high authority saying that the work was “full of original views, bearing everywhere the stamp of independent investigation and of an independent judgment,” and calculated “to form an epoch in the study of the earlier antiquities of Scotland and of Britain at large.” Another competent authority speaks of this work as “one of extraordinary merit, particularly in the lucidity of its scientific combinations and inductions, the charm of its style, and the perfect fidelity of its many pictorial illustrations.” A second edition being called for, the author in 1863 republished the work, with large additions and a careful revision, under the shorter title of “Prehistoric Annals of Scotland.” The term “Prehistoric” in its earlier use, in 1851, it may be worth noting, was, we believe, a coinage of the author’s; he, at least, was the first to bring the word into vogue. In 1863 also appeared what may be considered the author’smagnum opus, a work embodying the results of researches in archæology and ethnology in both hemispheres, and of which two subsequent editions, considerably re-written, have appeared. Of this production, which bears the title of “Prehistoric Man: Researches into the Origin of Civilisation in the Old and the New Worlds,” the EdinburghWitnessat the time under the editorship of the geologist, Hugh Miller, remarks that “the topic is not only vast in range, complex in material, and difficult from its nature, but brings the man who ventures to discuss it into contact with momentous and perplexing questions touching the origin of civilisation, the unity of the human race, and the time during which man has been a denizen of this planet. Dr. Wilson proves himself at all points equal to his task.” This emphatic verdict has been endorsed in other eminent quarters, and high commendation passed upon the book, not only for its scientific value, but for the attractiveness of its literary style. To these works have to be added three volumes, which, though notable in themselves, by no means represent the bulk of Dr. Wilson’s purely literary labors. They are respectively entitled “Chatterton: a Biographical Study” (1869); “Caliban, the Missing Link” (1873); and “Spring Wild Flowers,” a volume of graceful verse. In the Chatterton biography, the author has lovingly gathered all that is worthy of record in the career of the ill-fated Bristol dreamer; and the volume is the best tribute known to us to the young poet’s genius. “Caliban” is an interesting Shakespearian study, combining great imaginative power with a strong critical faculty, and giving the reader much curious information, with not a little fanciful disquisition, on the Evolution theory. The little volume dedicated to the Muses, of which two editions have appeared, emphasises the twin sisterhood of Science and Poetry, and enshrines some thoughtful lines on religious and moral subjects, with several happy examples of lighter verse. In addition to these published works, a whole library of contributions from the author’s pen is scattered through the “Proceedings” of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, the London Anthropological Institute, the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution, the British and American Associations for the Advancement of Science; the “Journal” of the Canadian Institute (for some years edited by Dr. Wilson); and the “Transactions” of the Royal Society of Canada. Of this latter society, to the vice-presidency of the literature section of which Dr. Wilson was nominated by its founder, the Marquis of Lorne: the doctor has been the chief working supporter, and to it has contributed many valuable papers, both in literature and science. To the present (ninth), as well as to the earlier (eighth), edition of the “Encyclopædia Britannica,” Dr. Wilson has also been an extensive contributor. In the current edition, the articles on “Canada,” “Confederation,” and “Toronto” are from his pen, as are the biographical articles on “Ferguson” and “Chatterton”; while the article on “Edinburgh,” it is understood, was written by him, and, oddly enough, was sent to Scotland from Toronto. Besides this mass of literary work, a number of contributions from the same source, on literary and historical subjects, with a good many reviews, art critiques, and academical addresses, have from time to time appeared in the pages of the “Canadian Monthly,” the “Canada Educational Monthly,”The Week, and other native journals. These, with other important philanthropic and Christian labors in Toronto, covering the period of half a lifetime, bear witness to Dr. Wilson’s untiring industry, and the force and range of his mental powers, as well as mark the nobleness of his personal character. A sketch, however brief, of the life and work of Dr. Wilson would be singularly incomplete which contained no reference to his labors as an educationist, and to his onerous duties in University College, both as professor and since 1881, when he succeeded Dr. McCaul, as its executive head. In some respects, and perhaps with truth, it may be said that Dr. Wilson would have done more justice to himself if he had made a choice in his life’s work between literature and science rather than, as he has done, given the prose side of his mind to archæological studies, and reserved its poetical side for literature. But the financial circumstances of the institution with which he has been so long connected, made this from the first impossible, and compelled him, laboriously and ardently, to toil on in dual and somewhat incongruous fields of work. With the result, however, no one can reasonably quarrel, for in both fields it must be said he has acquitted himself well and won merited fame. He who would trace Dr. Wilson’s life in the sphere of his academic labors must do so with real enthusiasm, with loving sympathy, and with hearty admiration for the scholar and the man. His lifelong interest in Toronto University, the many sacrifices he has made for it, his devotion to the subjects he has so ably taught in the college, and his inspiring and elevating influence upon the students who have successively come under his care, are matters that require little dwelling upon by any local pen. Nor is there need to say a word to any graduate, of the college at any rate, of the learned doctor’s ever ready courtesy, of his kindness of heart, of his simplicity of character, or of his high moral worth. Testimony to these and other lovable qualities in the president of University College is, we are sure, as abundant as testimony is emphatic to the learning and genius of their gifted possessor. If the state, strangely enough, has done little to mark Dr. Wilson’s services, both to science and education, throughout a long and unwearying life, he has at least this consolation, that, among those who have had the honor of personally knowing him, appreciation of their number and worth lies deep in every breast. The passing years have dealt kindly with the subject of this brief sketch; the figure, always spare, is still erect, and the step has lost little in the march of time of its early elasticity. The eyes look at you with the old-time keen, rapid glance; and there is the same kindly note in the voice, which rises and falls with that familiar, soft, measured cadence, which belongs distinctively to those who hail from the Scottish metropolis. For thirty-five years President Wilson has been connected with the University and College of Toronto, and has given to that institution the abundant fruitage of a rich, matured, and industrious life. During that long period, though he has daily gone in and out among almost all classes of the people of Toronto, and in many ways has contributed to the intellectual life and to the enriching of the scientific thought of Canada, and, indeed, of the continent, there are not many, we fear, outside of academic circles who recognise the genius, the learning, and the pre-eminent abilities of Dr. Wilson, or who appreciate him as a man at his true worth. In a general way the few in Toronto may know him as a learned scientist, and perhaps as an accomplishedlittérateur; but to the mass of his fellow-citizens he is little more than a prominent educationist, and the head of the national university. If this statement seems unfair, let us ask, how many know of his great reputation and high recognised status in the first scientific circles of the Old World, or who think of him in the light of his deserts—as one of the foremost men of the age in his own special departments of archæological and ethnological science? Canada as yet has not been fertile in great men; but here doubtless is one, if we are to take the measure of his worth not only from his books, though these undoubtedly are an author’s best and truest memorial, but from the estimation in which he is held in high scientific circles abroad, and the unsought honors conferred upon him by many of the learned societies of Europe. Only eminent services to science could have secured him the recognition of crowned heads and the issue of royal diplomas setting forth these services, with enrolment among the distinguished honorary members of the great scientific societies and learned institutions of the mother land, and of France, Italy, and Denmark. Dr. Wilson has now reached the evening of his days, and as the lengthening shadows fall athwart him and his labors, the writer of this, with many who love him, may well wish that a life so singularly pure and worthy may be prolonged and continued for many years yet at the service of his adopted country. But when the line of the allotted span has been crossed, wishes we know must be vain; and the granite shaft in yonder cemetery, with its touchingly beautiful tribute “to the wife of his youth,” who “was the bright sunshine of a long and happy life,” is a monition which neither he nor any wise friend can disregard, however distant all may wish the day when the Master’s summons shall come to one who has been eminently faithful, and the sombre curtain shall drop for ever upon his work.
Miller, John Stewart, Centreville, Ontario, Treasurer of the Township of Camden, M.P.P. for Addington, was born on the 17th September, 1844, in the township of Camden, county of Addington. He is the only son of Thomas Miller and Christina Madden. The family came originally from Ireland and settled in New England. During the revolutionary war they left that country and moved to Three Rivers, and subsequently, in 1790, took up their abode in the Bay of Quinté. He received his primary education in the schools of his native place, and then entered the Commercial College at Belleville, where he graduated in 1871. He then began farming on the homestead, lot No. 30, seventh concession of Camden, and here he continued his agricultural pursuits until 1886. In 1883 Mr. Miller began with a partner, business as a general merchant in the village of Centreville, and is still engaged in mercantile pursuits. He has taken a deep interest in military affairs, and in 1879 held the rank of lieutenant in the 48th battalion, and on the disbandment of this corps became attached to the 47th battalion. In 1875 he was appointed clerk of Camden township, and on resigning this office in 1886, received the appointment of treasurer of the same township, and this office he still holds. He joined the Orange Association in 1864, and served as county master in 1878-9. He became a member of Prince of Wales lodge, No. 146, of the Free and Accepted Masons in 1869; assisted in organizing Victoria lodge, No. 229, and was its master in 1870-71; and in 1883 he helped to organize Lorne lodge, No. 404, and was elected its first master, holding the office for three years. Mr. Miller has always taken an active interest in politics, and in 1880 was elected secretary-treasurer of the Liberal-Conservative Association of Addington. He presented himself in 1886 for parliamentary honors, and in December of the same year was elected to represent his native county in the Ontario legislature by a handsome majority over his opponent. In politics, as will be seen above, Mr. Miller is a Liberal-Conservative. His mother joined the Methodist church in 1828—who, by the way, is still alive, and a member of the same church—and the son is connected with the same religious body. He has been twice married; first, in 1871, to Carrie, second daughter of James Hawley. She died on the 24th February, 1874. He married, the second time, in 1877, Anne, eldest daughter of the late Robert Robertson, of Kingston.
Choquette, Philippe Auguste, LL.B., Advocate, Montmagny, Quebec province, M.P. for the county of Montmagny, was born on the 6th January, 1854, at Belœil, county of Verchères. His ancestors came from Amiens, Picardie, France, in 1643, and settled in Varennes, in the county where the subject of our sketch was born. His parents were Joseph Choquette, farmer, and Marie Thaïs Audet. He received his education at St. Hyacinthe College, and at Laval University, Quebec, and graduated B.C.L. from the latter institution in 1880, having previously taken the silver medal given by the governor-general, Lord Lorne. While he was prosecuting his studies at Laval, he acted as private secretary to the Hon. Honoré Mercier, then solicitor-general in the Joly administration, and now premier of Quebec province. He held, for about three years and a half, the position of book-keeper in a wholesale boot and shoe establishment in St. Hyacinthe before he began to study law. He then returned to Quebec in 1877, and entered the office of the Hon. François Langelier, M.P., and mayor of Quebec, to study law. After being admitted to the bar of Lower Canada in 1880, he removed to Montmagny, where he successfully practised his profession. Since 1877 he has been a contributor toL’Union, of St. Hyacinthe, andL’Electeur, of Quebec; and was publisher ofLa Sentinelle, a weekly paper at Montmagny, during the years 1883 and 1884. In 1878 he began to take an active part in politics; and in 1882 he ran for a seat in the House of Commons at Ottawa against A. C. P. R. Landry, the Conservative candidate, but was defeated by a majority of 120 votes. At the general election held in 1887 he again presented himself in opposition to Mr. Landry, and this time carried his election by a majority of 193 votes. Mr. Choquette has travelled through the principal parts of the United States. He has been secretary of the Reform Club of the county of Montmagny since 1881. In politics he is a strong Liberal, a free trader, in favor of commercial union, and would not object to annexation to the United States. He is an adherent of the Roman Catholic church, but objects to the clergy interfering and mixing in political contests. On the 29th August, 1883, he was married to Marie, daughter of A. Bender, prothonotary of the Superior Court, and granddaughter of the late Sir E. P. Taché baronet, A.D.C. to her Majesty the Queen, and one of the promoters of confederation.
Méthot, Right Rev. Michel Edouard, A.M., D.D., Quebec, Domestic Prelate of his Holiness, also Professor of Literature at Laval University, and of Moral Theology at the Grand Seminary of Quebec, member of the Archiepiscopal Curia of Quebec, was born on the 28th July, 1826, in the parish of Ste. Croix, county of Lotbinière, province of Quebec. His parents were Joseph Méthot, farmer, and Marie Xavier Desrochers. In 1839 he entered the Little Seminary of Quebec, where he followed the literary and scientific course of that institution. In 1847, having completed a classical course of instruction, he entered the Grand Seminary of Quebec, and went through a course of theology, being admitted to the holy orders in 1849. It may truly be said that Monsignor Méthot has devoted his entire life to the education of the youth of his country, teaching at first in the Little Seminary of Quebec, and then successively at the Grand Seminary and at Laval University, where he gave a public course of literature. He was also prefect of studies for ten years at the Little Seminary, twice director of the Grand Seminary, librarian of Laval University, and lastly, superior of the Seminary and rector of the University for seven years. He was the first vice-rector of the branch of Laval University in Montreal, which positions he resigned at the end of the academic year 1886-7 owing to ill-health. He visited Europe twice, the first time in 1860, when he went to England, France, and Italy. Our readers need not be surprised if we tell them that Monsignor Méthot visited the principal institutions of learning, colleges, museums, the most celebrated libraries, and monuments of arts of those countries, his taste and eagerness for learning leading him to choose those attractions in preference to all others. In 1866, having obtained leave of absence to recuperate from the exhausting labor of teaching, he crossed the Atlantic a second time and passed a whole year in Belgium. Rest, however, consisted in further studies. On his arrival in Belgium he went to the Catholic University of Louvain and applied himself to the study of theology, scriptures, and ecclesiastical history in that celebrated institution of learning. He has contributed to the newspaper and periodical press of the Province of Quebec several articles, biographical sketches and literary essays, which will help the historian of the future to write accurately the history of our Dominion. Mgr. Méthot was elevated to the dignity of domestic prelate by his Holiness Pope Leo XIII. in 1887.
Cloran, Henry Joseph, B.C.L., Barrister, Montreal, was born in that city on the 8th May, 1855. His father and mother are both Irish. The former, Joseph Cloran, is a native of county Galway, and the latter, Ann Kennedy, is from county Limerick. Having received his primary education in the Christian Brothers’ School at home, and passed a year in the public schools of New York, he entered the Montreal College in 1868, where he made a complete and successful course of classical studies. On graduating from college in 1875, he left for Europe, where during three years he prosecuted a course of scientific, philosophical and theological studies in the celebrated college of St. Sulpice, in Paris. During his sojourn in Europe he visited Italy, Switzerland, France, England and Ireland, and returned to Canada strongly equipped for the combats of the future with an extensive stock of knowledge, and a preciousensembleof information on the Irish question and general European politics. On his return home, Mr. Cloran filled for a year a professorship of English literature in hisalma mater, the Montreal College. He then took a course of law in the Universities of Laval and McGill, and graduated from the latter with the degree of B.C.L. He studied in the offices of the eminent legal firm of the late Edward Carter, Q.C.; Hon. R. Church, now judge of the Court of Queen’s Bench; and of Hon. J. A. Chapleau, ex-premier of Quebec, and now Secretary of State. At the close of his law studies, the editorship of the MontrealPostand of theTrue Witnessbecame vacant in 1882 by the resignation of J. C. Fleming. This responsible and important position was offered to Mr. Cloran, who accepted, and then commenced a journalistic career which has been crowned with marked success. We have no need to dwell upon the cleverness, judgment and ability displayed by Mr. Cloran in the functions of editor, nor upon the success he achieved. ThePostis the only Irish daily paper in America, and he made it the organ of Irish Canadian opinion, esteemed by friends and feared by foes. The articles from Mr. Cloran’s pen have been widely reproduced and commented on by the leading papers in Canada and the United States, and even in the European press. In 1886 when the board of directors wished to give the support of thePostto certain Tory candidates in the general provincial elections of that year, the young editor declined to obey their mandate, and rather than write a single line inconsistent with his convictions, he threw up the editorship of the paper. Mr. Cloran is a man of principle, and has on all occasions the courage of his convictions. There is no hypocrisy in his nature; he is at all times manly and straightforward. Animated by no prejudice, he bends and yields to none. His public opinions are also his private ones—a trait which is not always to be discovered in the character of public men. He is an ardent lover of fair play, and finds his pleasure in championing the cause of the weak and the wronged. An Irish Canadian, and an uncompromising Home Ruler, like all patriotic Irishmen, he ranks among the number of those broad and liberal minds who do not shut themselves up in the narrow circle of an exclusive programme. The cause of the half breeds of the North-West—which is, after all, the same in many respects as that of the Irish people—naturally found in Mr. Cloran a willing and earnest advocate. His attitude on the North-West and Riel questions was inspired by the purest and most patriotic of motives. Living in the midst of French Canadians, whose friend he is, and a patriot from a Canadian as well as an Irish standpoint, Mr. Cloran rightly believed he was consistent with himself in joining with them in the province of Quebec to defend provincial rights and autonomy. He finds, with much reason, that Home Rule, if it is good for Ireland, is equally good for Canada; and he has in consequence labored with all liberal minds for the cause of provincial autonomy, which is, in Canada, the condition necessary to ensure union and harmony among the different races, and consequently the condition essential to the future grandeur and prosperity of our country. Mr. Cloran’s public and political career began on the 16th November, 1885, when he was unanimously chosen at a meeting of citizens, jointly with George H. Duhamel, now the solicitor-general of the province, to fill the position of secretary to the national movement that was inaugurated to secure the defeat and overthrow of Sir John A. Macdonald’s government, for the mal-administration of the North-West Territories, and the execution of the leader of the half breeds. He took a prominent part in the historic mass meeting of fifty thousand people assembled, from all parts of the province, on the Champ de Mars, Montreal, where he distinguished himself at one bound as an orator capable of speaking in both the French and English languages. He went through the famous winter campaign of 1886, and during the late provincial elections he fought a brilliant and victorious battle in company with Messrs. Laurier, Mercier, Bellerose, Duhamel and Bergeron, which resulted in the final overthrow of the old Conservative government, and the general break-up of the Tory and “Bleu” party which had controlled the destinies of Quebec almost uninterruptedly since confederation. No one contributed more to the establishment of the National administration of Hon. Honoré Mercier in Quebec than Mr. Cloran. There was not a National candidate who made a vain appeal to him for assistance. Always in the breach, and always at the disposal of his friends, Mr. Cloran covered almost the entire province; he addressed mass meetings in over forty counties, and everywhere he appeared he won the esteem and the confidence of the people who heard him. In the short space of one year he became one of the most popular orators, and one of the political lights of the province. Mr. Cloran placed himself at the service of the Liberal party to fight out the election campaign in Ontario, and put down the “No Popery” brigade in favor of the Mowat administration, which carried the standard of honest government and of civil and religious liberty. He took an active part in the struggle in the counties of Glengarry, Stormont and Prescott, where the three Liberal candidates were elected by large majorities. In showing no hesitation to go to Ontario to assist the Liberal government of Mr. Mowat, Mr. Cloran and his Quebec friends contributed much towards giving its true signification to the National movement. They clearly proved thereby that in the minds of none of them there never was harbored the slightest thought of a war of races, as was pretended by the Tory press and speakers; that far from attempting to divide and separate the different races, they were, on the contrary, ready and willing to strengthen more firmly than ever the bonds that unite us from one end to the other of the Dominion, irrespective of race and creed. In the general elections of 1887 for the House of Commons at Ottawa, Mr. Cloran was selected by the Liberal party as their standard bearer for Montreal Centre, one of the largest and most important constituencies in the Dominion. Although defeated, he almost doubled the Liberal vote given in the election of 1882, and succeeded in reducing the previous majority of his opponent, J. J. Curran, Q.C., M.P., by some five hundred votes. Before becoming one of our most noted public men, Mr. Cloran had occasion, at different times, to give proof of his energy and ability in occupying honorary positions in a number of literary, athletic and national and other organisations to which he was called by the confidence and esteem of his fellow citizens. It was thus that he was elected president of the Catholic Young Men’s Society, of Montreal, in 1880 and 1881. He was chosen secretary of the Parnell Reception Committee, which was the grandest accorded the great Irish leader in his memorable visit to America seven years ago. He has filled the office of president of the Press Association of the province of Quebec. An amateur of Canadian sports, he is the president of the renowned Shamrock Lacrosse Club. A Home Ruler, he is president of the Montreal branch of the Irish National League. He was a delegate to the Irish National Convention at Chicago in 1886, where he distinguished himself by two eloquent speeches. He was chairman of the organisation that gave Michael Davitt, the father of the League, a reception which has never been surpassed for brilliancy and enthusiasm. He is first vice-president of the St. Patrick’s Society; and is a director of the Montreal Diocesan Colonization Society, under the presidency of his Grace Mgr. Fabre. At the convention of the Young Liberals of the Dominion, held last July, he was elected as the Irish representative from Quebec province on the executive committee. Mr. Cloran was also a delegate to the Central Trades and Labor Council, in the foundation of which he took an active part. Since hisdébutin public life he has not ceased to interest himself in the welfare of the working classes. His pen and voice were always at their service. He was also the chief organiser of the immense popular demonstrations and receptions accorded to William O’Brien, M.P., editor ofUnited Ireland, on the memorable occasion of the latter’s visit to Montreal. Having abandoned journalism, he prepared himself for the bar, and on the 7th July, 1887, after a severe and brilliant examination, he was admitted with honors to the practice of the law. Although still young in years Mr. Cloran has acquired much valuable experience, and, as has been seen, has played an honorable and influentialrôlein society, and has rendered distinguished service to his country. Mr. Cloran married, in 1882, Agnes, the third daughter of Michael Donovan, a leading Irish citizen and business man of Montreal, and for years president of the St. Patrick’s Society, and of the Irish National League.
Edwards, William Cameron, Manufacturer of Lumber, Rockland, Ontario, M.P. for the county of Russell, was born in the township of Clarence, Russell county, in 1844. His father, William Edwards, was a native of Portsmouth, England, and came to Canada about 1820, and settled in Clarence township. Here, for a long period, he took a leading part in all movements intended for the advancement of the district in which he resided, and was for over twenty years reeve of the township. The mother of the subject of our sketch, Ann Cameron, was a native of Fort William, Scotland. William was educated in the Ottawa Grammar School, and when he had reached the age of nineteen was employed by Cameron & Edwards, lumbermen, of Thurso, and here he remained for a number of years. In 1868 he joined in a partnership with James Wood, and they, having built a small steam sawmill at Rockland, on the Ottawa river, commenced the lumber business under the firm name of W. C. Edwards & Co. The business having proved successful, in 1871 Cameron & Edwards gave up their establishment at Thurso, and threw in their lot with W. C. Edwards & Co., at Rockland. A large mill was then erected, and their business steadily increased. In 1875 a fire visited the locality, and unfortunately destroyed the whole premises of the firm, including mills, docks, buildings, plant, and indeed everything pertaining to the establishment, and besides a large stock of sawn lumber. And to add to this misfortune, the amount of their insurance did not cover one-third of the loss. Nothing daunted, the firm went to work, the same year, to rebuild, and in the spring of 1876 they were at work again. Since this time their business has largely increased, and the firm now give employment to a great number of hands. Previous to the opening of the mills at Rockland there were only two or three houses in the place; but to-day the village has a population of about fifteen hundred; is incorporated; and has a post office, telegraph office, stores, school house, churches, a good public hall, a division court, etc. Mr. Edwards has always been the sole manager of the firm’s business, and, as may be seen, has very successfully conducted its affairs. In 1866 he succeeded in forming the Thurso infantry company, and for three years, up to his leaving the village, was captain of this company. He has been for many years a justice of the peace, and has also been reeve of the village of Rockland. During the past four years he has been president of the County of Russell Agricultural Society, and has done considerable towards promoting the improvement of stock and the general advancement of agriculture in the county. He is a Liberal in politics, and in 1882 he unsuccessfully contested Russell for a seat in the House of Commons against Moss Kent Dickinson. Again at the last general election he entered the field, and was elected by a majority of 156 votes over C. H. McIntosh, who opposed him. Mr. Edwards is an adherent of the Baptist church. In 1885 he was married to Catherine M., eldest daughter of William Wilson, of Cumberland, Ontario, who for many years has been the leading business man of his township, and over twenty years its reeve, and a justice of the peace.
Jones, Sir David, Brockville.—The late Sir David Jones, who was born in 1794, died on the 23rd August, 1838, at Brockville, Ontario, where he and his family long resided. Few men were more respected, and none could be held in higher estimation by his countrymen. He was an uncompromising supporter of British interests. On visiting England in 1835, as agent of the Brockville Loan and Trust Company, he received the honor of knighthood from His Majesty William IV., at Windsor Castle, being the first native of Ontario who had the honor of receiving so distinguished a mark of royal favor. Sir David died after an illness of only five days, and his early demise cast a gloom over his native place.
Kemble, William, Quebec.—This talented journalist was a native of Surrey, England, and a member of a distinguished mercantile family in London, one of whom, at the time of Mr. Kemble’s death, was a member of the Imperial parliament, for the county above mentioned. He was born in 1781, and died at Quebec, on the 25th February, 1845. While editing the QuebecMercury, from 1823 to 1842, he greatly distinguished himself as a writer, and the spirit and raciness that characterized his writings will long be remembered by hisconfrèresof the press. His talents were of a high order. He was also a generous contributor to many periodicals, including the then celebrated “Simmond’s Colonial Magazine,” of London, England.
McMicken, Hon. Gilbert, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Agent of the Commercial Union Assurance Company of London, England, is a native of England, having been born in London in 1813, but was from earliest infancy brought up in Glenluce, Wigtonshire, Scotland, of which country, his father was a native. He left Scotland in 1832, and landed at the port of Quebec on the 1st July of the same year. He proceeded to Montreal, and remained there about three weeks, and then went to Toronto (then Little York). From Toronto he removed, in September, to Chippewa, and engaged in the forwarding business. In July, 1838, he was appointed collector of customs, at Queenston, and subsequently held the same office at Suspension Bridge, near Niagara Falls. In 1851 was warden of the united counties of Lincoln and Welland; and was the first mayor of Clifton, and served for several subsequent terms in the same office. In 1857 Mr. McMicken entered the political field, and was elected to represent the county of Welland in the parliament of Canada, which he did for four years. In 1860 he moved to the county of Essex; and in 1864 was appointed stipendiary magistrate with jurisdiction over the whole Western Canada frontier, and in this capacity he successfully quieted frontier excitement, especially in the cities of Detroit and Buffalo, and afterwards received the special thanks of Lord Monck, the then governor-general of Canada, for his services on this occasion. He managed the extradition of Burley, for piracy on lake Erie; and also adjudicated upon and extradited the parties in the two celebrated express robbery cases of Reno and Anderson and of Morton and Thomson. He discovered and arranged the settlement of the disputed line of international boundary at the St. Clair flats canal. In 1865 Mr. McMicken was specially charged to watch over the Fenian movement in the United States in that year, and continued to do so until their last efforts at invasion failed in 1870. During these exciting times, and on the occasion of the murder of T. D’Arcy McGee, on Sparks street, Ottawa, he had committed to his care the government and parliament buildings in that city, and the persons of the members of the government and of parliament then at the capital; and protected, by convoy, the persons of Black, Richot and Scott, delegates from Manitoba, from the United States to Ottawa, during the first troubles in the North-West. In 1869 he was appointed to accompany his Royal Highness Prince Arthur, and his suite, with Governor-General Young, Lady Young, and Colonel Elphinstone, in their tour through Ontario, thence to Montreal, and then on to Ottawa, and for the valuable services rendered the party he received the special thanks of Prince Arthur, accompanied by a valuablesouvenir. In 1871 he was made agent of the Dominion lands in Manitoba, and assistant receiver-general, Dominion auditor, manager of the Dominion savings banks, and immigration agent. In the same year he was instrumental in preventing a rising of the Metis when the Fenians offered to come over from the United States to help them. From 1874 to 1877 he was the acting inspector of the Manitoba Penitentiary, and in the latter year he retired from the government service on a pension, having served the Dominion faithfully and well. In 1879 he was elected to represent Cartier in the Manitoba legislature, was chosen speaker of that body, and retired from political life on the dissolution of the parliament in 1883. In 1879 he was appointed agent of the Commercial Union Assurance Company of London, England, and this position he still holds. Though greatly advanced in age, he is still hale and hearty, and a good many years of usefulness are still apparently before him. Hon Mr. McMicken married at Chippewa, on the 19th February, 1835, Ann Theresa, grand-daughter of Commodore Grant.
Masson, Lt.-Colonel Louis François Roderique, ex-Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of Quebec, was born at Terrebonne, on November 7th, 1833. He is the fourth son of Hon. Joseph Masson, a member of the Legislative Council of Canada, at the time of his death, and M. G. Sophie Raymond, of Laprairie. Mrs. Masson died in 1883, at Terrebonne, where she was buried. The ceremonies of her funeral were very impressive, the archbishop of Montreal officiating; the musical service, under the leadership of Professor Guillaume Couture, of Montreal, with a select choir of forty male voices, was the grandest ever performed in the country. Besides distributing a considerable fortune to her children and relatives, she left princely legacies to various charitable institutions, the Deaf Mute Institution of Montreal receiving for its share a sum of $20,000. The ancestors of Mr. Masson came to Canada very early, and settled originally in Saint Eustache. At the present time the ramifications of the family spread over the whole province of Quebec. The subject of our sketch was educated at the Jesuits’ College, Georgetown, Worcester, Mass., and at St. Hyacinthe, Quebec, where he completed his classical studies. During this period he travelled for two years through Europe and the Holy Land, in company with that distinguished scholar, Rev. Mr. Désaulniers, of St. Hyacinthe College. Their tour lasted twenty four months, and was productive of immense benefit to young Masson, both in a physical and mental point of view. At the conclusion of his classical course he entered the law office of the late Sir George Etienne Cartier, in Montreal, where he resided three years, and in November, 1859, he was admitted to the bar. He never, however, practised his profession. Since October, 1862, he has held a commission in the Canadian volunteer force. On August 21st, 1863, he was appointed brigade-major 8th military district of Lower Canada, doing active duty on the frontier during the first Fenian raid, March, 1866; and also during the second raid in the same year, and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in 1867. Colonel Masson has held various offices in the municipality of his native town, and was mayor of Terrebonne in 1874. In 1867 he was first elected to parliament as representative for the county of Terrebonne, and at every subsequent election he was re-elected by acclamation. He is perhaps the most popular man in the province of Quebec among his constituents. He is a Conservative, and stands very high in the estimation of his chiefs. In 1873 he was offered a seat in the Macdonald cabinet, but declined; the outspoken views he held on the amnesty for political offences in Manitoba, and on the settlement of the New Brunswick mixed schools question, forbade his acceptance of the honour proffered, unless he should make a sacrifice of principles. He is in favour of a reciprocity treaty with the United States, provided Canada is able to get equitable terms; of a moderately protective tariff, and he always advocated the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway wholly on Canadian soil. In 1878, when the Mackenzie administration resigned, Mr. Masson, who was travelling in Europe, was offered a portfolio in the new cabinet, and he sailed immediately for Canada. On his arrival (19th October), he was sworn in a member of her Majesty’s Privy Council and minister of militia and defence. Under his energetic administration numerous improvements and useful changes were effected in the Canadian militia organization,—more especially the establishment of drill associations in educational institutions, the supply of military clothes from Canadian manufacture, the manufacturing in the country of gunpowder, cartridges, heavy guns, etc. For reasons of health he was forced to discontinue the arduous labours he had undertaken, and on the 16th January, 1880, he resigned his position of minister of militia and defence, and was appointed president of the Privy Council. Mr. Masson resigned his seat in the cabinet in 1880, and in 1882 was called to the Senate. In 1884 he was appointed a member of the Legislative Council of Quebec, and he held that position until the 7th November, 1884, when he resigned, to assume the duties of lieutenant-governor of the province of Quebec. In 1856 Col. Masson married Louise Rachel, eldest daughter of Lieut.-Col. Alexander Mackenzie, and granddaughter of Hon. Roderique Mackenzie, once a member of the Legislative Council of Canada, and a partner in the North-West Fur Company; by this marriage he had issue five children, three sons and two daughters. Mrs. Masson died, and in 1884 he married his second wife, Cécile Burroughs, eldest daughter of John H. Burroughs, prothonotary of the Supreme Court of Canada.
Belleau, Sir Narcisse, K.C.M.G., Q.C., ex-Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of Quebec, was born on the 20th October, 1808, in the city of Quebec, where he was educated, and where he still resides. Shortly after leaving school he chose law as a profession, and soon built up a lucrative business. Being a public spirited gentleman, he took an active part in municipal affairs, and in 1860, when the Prince of Wales visited Canada, Mr. Belleau was mayor of Quebec, and on this auspicious occasion he had the honour of knighthood conferred upon him. He entered the Legislative Council in 1852, soon made his mark there, and in 1857 was elected speaker of that body. This elevated position he retained until 1862, when he received the appointment of minister of agriculture in the Cartier-Macdonald administration. In 1865 he was persuaded to undertake the responsible duties of premier and receiver-general, and held these important offices until appointed lieutenant-governor of the province of Quebec in 1867. Sir Narcisse took an active part in all the most celebrated trials at this time in contested election cases, and his voice was no insignificant one in all and more than peculiarly delicate questions which so frequently arose during the time he was speaker of the upper house before confederation. As a legal adviser in civil cases he had few compeers at the time of his practising in Quebec that were recognized as his equal, still less his superior. Though now well advanced in years he still possesses a large circle of friends inside and outside of politics, and is a gentleman highly respected in his native city. His excellency Señor Don Boniface de Blas, minister of foreign affairs, by order and in the name of his Majesty the King of Spain, for services rendered on the occasion of the projected invasion of Cuba by the filibusters, conferred upon him the dignity of commander and grand officer of the royal order of Isabella la Catolica, in 1872, and on the 24th May, 1879, he had the still higher honour conferred upon him of being made a knight commander of the order of St. Michael and St. George, by her Majesty Queen Victoria, at the hands of the Marquis of Lorne, late governor-general, in the presence of her Royal Highness the Princess Louise. Sir Narcisse Belleau, now an old man, can look back on his past record as barrister, mayor, speaker of the Legislative Council, minister of agriculture, receiver-general, premier and lieutenant-governor of his native province, with satisfaction—having filled these high offices with credit to himself and honour to his country—and enjoy the remainder of his days as a public benefactor and a humane sympathetic Christian gentleman should always be able to do. On the 15th September, 1835, Sir Narcisse was married to Mary, daughter of the late L. Gauvreau, at one time a member of the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada. There is no issue by the marriage.
Desaulniers, François Sévère Lesieur, B.C.L., Yamachiche, M.P. for St. Maurice, Quebec Province. The subject of this sketch is a member of one of the oldest, most well known and respectable families of the province of Quebec—the Desaulniers having come from France to Canada some time during the seventeenth century (1642), and settled in the district of Three Rivers. He is descended from Charles Lesieur, who was a notary royal and solicitor general under the French government, and of Françoise de Lafond, a niece of Pierre Boucher, the illustrious governor of Three Rivers under the government of M. de Mésy (1663). Mr. Desaulniers is the son of the late François Lesieur Desaulniers, and of the late Marguerite Pothier, and was born at Yamachiche on the 19th September, 1850. He received his education at Nicolet College, an institution to which both church and state are greatly indebted for having produced many citizens who distinguish themselves in the various walks of public life. After successfully passing his examinations, Mr. Desaulniers was admitted to the bar on the 13th January, 1879, at Three Rivers, and is now a member of the legal firm of Desilets, Desaulniers & Duplessis of that city. But his love for journalism was evidently greater than for the law, for we meet him, while studying law, editing theConstitutionnelat Three Rivers, a journal founded by one of the most distinguished French Canadian writers, the late Hon. E. Gérin, legislative councillor. Later on, from 1875 to 1877, we find him in Quebec, as assistant editor ofLe Canadien, whilst he contributed several editorials and political articles to theRevue Canadienneof Montreal, toLe Foyer Domestiqueof Ottawa, as well as to several other papers. Mr. Desaulniers’ political career began in 1878, when he was, for the first time, returned to the Quebec parliament, at the general elections, for his native county, St. Maurice, P.Q. He was elected by a majority of 245 votes over his opponent, L. A. Lord. At the general elections of 1881 he was re-elected for the same constituency by a majority of 110 votes over S. J. Remington. While in the Quebec parliament he was a moderate Liberal-Conservative, and a strong supporter of the conciliatory and moderate policy inaugurated by the Chapleau government. In 1886, at the late provincial elections, Mr. Desaulniers withdrew from the political arena to accept a charge from the provincial government. Upon the recommendation of the Hon. M. de la Bruère, speaker of the Legislative Council, he was, on the 2nd November, 1886, appointed by the Ross government deputy-clerk and clerk of the private bills of the Legislative Council of Quebec,viceJ. A. Jodoin, resigned. Lately a vain attempt was made to deprive him of this office, but by a unanimous vote of the Legislative Council his appointment was confirmed. On the 22nd February, 1887, Mr. Desaulniers was returned to the Dominion parliament for his old and faithful constituency of St. Maurice, where he enjoys a well-deserved popularity. He won the contest this time by a majority of 267 votes over his opponent, L. A. Lord. While devoting all his energies to the fulfilment of his numerous duties as representative of the people, Mr. Desaulniers, who takes a deep interest in agriculture, has been unanimously elected for ten years consecutively as president of the Agricultural Society of the county of St. Maurice. He has also been a justice of the peace since 1878. In politics Mr. Desaulniers is a staunch Conservative. He strongly endorses the protective policy adopted some years ago, and is a warm supporter of the Sir John A. Macdonald administration. In July, 1877, he married, at St. Guillaume d’Upton, Marie Aglaé Maher, daughter of Francis Maher, merchant, whose ancestors came from Stuttgart, Germany. They have five children living. Mr. Desaulniers is extremely popular in his own constituency and in the neighbouring counties, where he has often addressed large meetings on all the vital issues of the day, and performed many acts of kindness and liberality—winning, at the same time, for himself the esteem and respect of all by his social qualities, his proverbial hospitality, his sterling integrity, and his devotedness to the public interests.
McClelan, Hon. Abner Reid, Senator, Riverside, Hopewell, New Brunswick, was born where he now resides, in 1831. He is the youngest son of the late Peter McClelan, who was for a considerable period a justice of the peace, and of the common pleas, in the county of Albert. His paternal ancestry were Irish; but his mother (Robinson) was descended from the Clarkes, of New Hampshire. A. R. McClelan was educated at the district school, and at the Mount Allison Wesleyan Academy, of which he was subsequently one of the Board of Governors. In 1854, Mr. McClelan was elected one of the representatives of his native county in the New Brunswick legislature, and continued to hold the position till the union, in 1867. He is liberal in politics, and united with the Hon. Charles Fisher, the Hon. S. L. Tilley, and other Liberals of that day, in the overthrow of the Conservative administration, and in the establishment, on a firmer basis, of the rights of all under the responsible system of government. Mr. McClelan was an ardent supporter of the treaty of 1854, which secured free reciprocal trade with the United States. In addition to other reforms, he succeeded in obtaining amendments to the law of inheritance, including the removal of the rights of primogeniture, and in providing postal regulations for the better observance of the Sabbath day. His efforts were always employed to obtain a fair and equitable distribution of the public appropriations, and the county which he so long represented derived considerable advantages thereby. In 1865, he was an unsuccessful candidate for the speakership of the Assembly. During that year he helped to lead the opposition against the government formed to oppose the union, and on the resignation of the ministry, he accepted a seat in the new administration with the portfolio of public works, which he held till the union, when he was called to the Senate. He advocated the construction of the railway from Shediac to St. John, now a part of the Intercolonial, and subsequently the establishment of branch lines, including an ample subsidy for the Albert Railway, which was guaranteed by the Dominion government, upon the special request of the friends and promoters of the road. Mr. McClelan at the outset urged the government which he was then supporting to subsidize a short line to Hillsboro’, which was done, and the road afterwards extended to Hopewell. He prepared and introduced the original Act of Incorporation, assisted in securing the aid of the Dominion guarantee, and asked for and obtained a loan of rails to facilitate a branch line to Hillsboro’. As a member of the Dominion parliament, Mr. McClelan has continued on the side of liberalism and free trade, believing and affirming that the policy of protection is not based on equitable principles, that it is generally injurious in its tendencies, and especially detrimental to the smaller provinces by the sea. Though formerly in mercantile business, the Hon. Mr. McClelan has partially retired therefrom, owing to delicate health. In the Senate, it may be added, he is a man of much usefulness, for he gives to public questions a thoughtful and impartial study. To the broad interests of Canada, the Hon. Mr. McClelan has been always loyal, and there is nothing hollow about his patriotism. He is married to Anna J., eldest daughter of W. J. Reed, of Harvey, New Brunswick.
Clemo, Ebenezer, Inventor, was a native of London, England, and came to Canada in 1858. He was, although young, a person of great genius and ability. On his arrival in Montreal he was reduced to such necessity, that he applied to John Lovell, publisher of that city, for employment as a message boy; but Mr. Lovell knowing his acquirements, engaged him to write a couple of books. Hence “Simon Seek,” and “The Canadian Homes,” which appeared in the same year. Not works of the highest standard of literature certainly, but evincing much talent, and giving a good insight into Canadian character and life. He was the inventor and discoverer of making paper pulp out of straw, an industry which has grown to great proportions since his day; and when engaged in erecting machinery for the manufacture of such paper at Morristown, New Jersey, died in 1860, at the early age of thirty.
Fullerton, James S., President of the Osgoode Literary and Legal Society, Toronto.—Mr. Fullerton is a native Canadian, having been born on April 3, 1843, in the township of South Dorchester, Elgin county, Ontario. Early in life he formed a taste for the law, and finally came to Toronto a student. He studied with N. G. Bigelow, John Leys and Beverly Jones, and ten years ago he was admitted to the bar. He had the honor of taking third and fourth year scholarships. He has now practised his profession for a decade, and is senior partner in the firm of Fullerton, Cook & Miller. He has had more of the successes of life than fall to the lot of most men. His practice has steadily increased, and it is said in legal circles that in three years he has only lost a couple of cases—and those it was well nigh impossible to win. His reputation for office work is great, and his unusual capabilities for making a jury think as he thinks have given him considerable counsel work to do.
Begg, Alexander, Dunbow Ranch, North-West Territory, Canada, is a native of the parish of Watten, Caithness-shire, Scotland, and was born 7th May, 1825. He is a son of Andrew Begg, farmer, and Jane Taylor, of Houstry, Dunn, Watten. His father was also miller of the mill of Dunn until about fifty years ago, when it and similar small oatmeal mills throughout Caithness were discontinued. The work of kiln-drying oats, formerly done by every farmer at home on his own kiln,—the winnowing of the shelled grain after it had first passed between the mill stones, and the sifting of the meal had to be done by hand; but about that time was transferred to larger mills erected by each proprietor for his tenants. The modern mill was furnished with a fanning mill to clean the shelled oats, and sieves which sifted the meal thoroughly. A kiln was also attached for the use of the tenants, who were bound each to bring his grain to the mill belonging to the estate on which his farm was situate and pay toll there. Mr. Begg received his elementary education at a somewhat celebrated select school, taught by William Campbell, near his father’s house at Backlass, Dunn. Up to the age of eighteen he assisted on the farm and attended the Watten parish school. Subsequently he attended the Normal School at Edinburgh, from which he received a diploma qualifying him as a teacher. This he utilized by teaching at Cluny, Aberdeenshire, until 1846, when he emigrated to Canada. Soon after his arrival at Belleville, where some of his school fellows had formerly emigrated, he taught school in the townships of West Huntingdon and Madoc, and afterwards at Oshawa. There he met J. E. McMillan (now sheriff in Victoria, B.C.), and joined him in publishingThe Messenger, the first newspaper published in Bowmanville. After a couple of years he sold out to Mr. McMillan, and purchased the plant of the CobourgSun, removing it to Brighton, Ontario, and publishedThe Sentinel, the first newspaper published there. He afterwards startedThe Advocateat Trenton, also the pioneer newspaper of that place. Shortly afterwards he disposed of his interest in the printing business, and visited his native land. On his return to Canada he received an appointment in the customs, serving at the ports of Morrisburg, Port Dover, Brockville and Cornwall; and in 1869 was promoted to be collector of customs and inspector of inland revenue for the North-West Territories, accompanying the lieutenant-governor, Hon. Wm. McDougall and party, as far as Pembina, when the French half-breeds under Riel stopped their advance, compelling their return. To conciliate certain parties, another collector of customs was sent out to Fort Garry after Riel’s flight to the United States. Mr. Begg was transferred to the Inland Revenue department, but being dissatisfied at being deprived of his position without any fault on his part, he left the service of the Dominion government, and accepted the office of emigration commissioner in Scotland for the Ontario government. In that work he was remarkably successful, and during several years continued to send out a superior class of emigrants. Owing to a change in the emigration policy, only one agent for Ontario was retained for Great Britain, at Liverpool. Mr. Begg then turned his attention to the establishment of a temperance colony in the Parry Sound district. The township of McMurrich was chosen as being then without any settlers. A grist mill, saw and shingle mills were erected by him at Beggsboro’ in 1874, to encourage the settlement; and although by a decision of the Provincial government, that settlers, other than strictly temperance men, could be admitted to the colony, it became and still continues a prosperous settlement. Whilst engaged in opening up roads through the wilderness and fostering the colony, Mr. Begg became editor and joint proprietor of the MuskokaHerald, published at Bracebridge; and soon afterwards commenced in Toronto the publication of theCanada Lumberman, a paper devoted to the interest of lumber dealers. This paper was purchased by a Peterboro’ firm, and has attained a leading position in the lumber trade. Next we find him, in 1879, at the World’s Exposition in Paris, where he had on view, and received prizes for, a landau carriage from London, Ontario, and a sleigh from Orillia, at which latter place his family have resided since their return from Scotland. He also brought across the Atlantic with him from the Muskoka lakes, a number of live black bass, the first ever brought alive across the ocean from the new to the old world. Some of the bass were deposited at Dunrobin, the seat of the Duke of Sutherland’s family in Scotland; some in England, and a few more taken across the English channel to Paris, for which latter he received a medal from the Paris Société d’Acclimatation. In 1881 Mr. Begg made a tour to the North-West by way of Chicago, St. Paul and Bismarck, as the TorontoMailcorrespondent; taking the steamer up the Missouri to Fort Benton, the head of navigation, the Northern Pacific Railway not having been completed farther than Bismark at that time. The journey onward and northward from Benton to Fort McLeod was made by team and on horseback, camping out by the way. His Excellency the Marquis of Lorne reached McLeod from Battleford and Calgary on his tour across the continent at the same time Mr. Begg arrived from the south, so he had the opportunity of meeting the governor-general and party, and of including in his correspondence the earliest written news of their arrival there, and the enthusiastic reception given them by the Bloods, Piegans and a party of Indians (Blackfeet), under Chief Crowfoot. From McLeod, Mr. Begg proceeded to Morley, where one of his sons (Magnus) was farm instructor of the Stoney tribe of Indians on the reserve there. Magnus has since been promoted to be chief agent at the Blackfoot reserve. From Morley, Mr. Begg rode up Bow River to the foot of the Rockies, where an advance party of the Canadian Pacific Railway engineers were at work to ascertain if the railway line could be located by that route. Returning to Calgary, he proceeded north to Edmonton and St. Albert; then eastward to Battleford, Prince Albert and Duck Lake, on to Humboldt, Fort Qu’Appelle, Fort Ellice and Brandon, which latter place the Canadian Pacific Railway had just reached. At Humboldt he was obliged to sell his saddle and pack horses and take the stage, as winter had fairly set in, and travelling alone was no longer safe, especially without stopping places for the night. Next year, Mr. Begg returned to the North-West by the same route, taking one of his sons (Robert) with him to establish a sheep, cattle and horse ranch (Dunbow) at the confluence of High river with Bow river. This summer (1887) another of his sons (Roderick) joined him on the ranch, which is now well stocked and flourishing. His sons, Alexander and Peter, have recently been engaged in the Eastern States in connection with a printing establishment; another son, Ralph, is attending the Military School in Toronto, whilst the sixth, Colin, is studying at the High School in Orillia, where Mrs. Begg and five daughters yet reside. This autumn Mr. Begg was appointed emigration commissioner by the government of British Columbia, to arrange with the Crofter fishermen of Scotland to settle on the western shores of the island of Vancouver, to develop the valuable deep sea fisheries of the Pacific. On this important mission he left Canada in October, having formulated a scheme which will, he considers, solve the difficulty which has hitherto prevented the Imperial government from advancing funds to assist the emigration of the Crofters.
Panneton, Louis Edmond, Q.C., B.C.L., LL.M., Barrister, Sherbrooke, province of Quebec, was born at Three Rivers, in that province, on the 6th July, 1848. His parents were André Panneton and Marie Blondin. Mr. Panneton received his education at the college of Three Rivers, where he took the classical course. In 1865 he removed to Sherbrooke, and in 1870 was admitted to the bar of Lower Canada. He was elected a school commissioner in 1877, and in the same year was appointed a member of the Catholic Board of Examiners for granting diplomas to teachers. In 1878 he was elected president of the Club Cartier (Conservative Association), and a member of the city council in 1886. The degree of B.C.L. was conferred upon him in 1882, and that of LL.M. in 1885. He is a professor of civil law at Bishop’s University. He was chosen president for the years 1885 and 1886 of the Eastern Townships Typographical Company, which publishedLe Pionnier. He was made a Queen’s counsel in 1887, and in the same year was elected president of the bar of the district of St. Francis. Mr. Panneton travelled through the United States in 1876, and made an extended tour through Europe in 1878. In religion, he is an adherent of the Roman Catholic church, and in politics, a Conservative. He was married on the 6th July, 1886, to Corinne Dorais, of St. Gregoire, daughter of L. T. Dorais, M.P.P. for the county of Nicolet, Province of Quebec.
Blair, Frank I., M.D., St. Stephen, New Brunswick, was born on 6th January, 1855. His father, Dugald Blair, M.D., was a Scotchman by birth, having been born in Greenock, Scotland, and afterwards settled in New Brunswick. His mother, Sarah Henrietta Marks, was a native of St. Stephen, and was a descendant of Captain Nehemiah Marks, a noted loyalist. Dr. Blair received his early education in Sunbury Grammar School and the University, Fredericton; and adopting medicine as a profession, completed his studies at the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York. He then returned to his native province, and began the practice of his profession in St. Stephen, where he has succeeded in building up a good business. He takes an interest in Masonry, and is a Knight Templar. He has travelled a good deal, and found time to visit Europe, California, and several other Western states of America. In politics he is a Liberal-Conservative; and in religion an adherent of the Church of England. On the 1st of December, 1881, he was married to Alice J. Owen, of St. Stephen.
Irving, Andrew, Registrar of the County of Renfrew, Pembroke, Ontario, was born at Chatham, Miramichi, Northumberland county, New Brunswick, on the 14th of December, 1820. His father, Andrew Irving, was a second cousin of the celebrated preacher and divine, Edward Irving, the founder of the sect known as the “Irvinites,” and was born in the parish of Middlebec, Dumfriesshire, Scotland. He emigrated to New Brunswick in 1816, and lived a quiet life as a farmer on the banks of the Miramichi river, about a mile from the town of Chatham, where he died in 1864. His mother, Margaret Henderson, came to this country some time after her husband, and died at a ripe old age in 1871. Mr. Irving’s grandfather, John Henderson, married Clarinda Douglas, the daughter of Sir Archibald Douglas, of Castle Milk, and had the Cleugh Brae farm presented to him by Sir Archibald on the day of his marriage. He died at the age of fifty-eight. Having made his will only eight days before his death, it was declared illegal, from the circumstance that at that time the law of Scotland required that a testator must attend both kirk and market, and live six weeks after making his will, otherwise it would be null and void. The family contested the validity of this will in the courts, with the usual results, namely that of financial ruin to them all. Andrew, the subject of our sketch, was educated at the Grammar School at Chatham, and afterwards studied medicine for three years with Dr. Key, then the most successful practitioner in New Brunswick. Finding, however, that too close application to study was endangering his health, he abandoned medicine, and resolved to seek his fortune in Western Canada. With this object in view, in the summer of 1842 he began his journey westward, and rather than slowly voyage on board a schooner from Miramichi to Quebec he chose the land route. He rode on horseback from Miramichi to Dalhousie, a distance of over a hundred miles, then crossed the Restigouche river at Campbelltown with his provisions on his back, and walked across the country to the St. Lawrence river at Metis, a distance of nearly a hundred miles. The road for the greater part of the route was only a footpath, and the sole guide he and his party had was the Indian blaze; and it took three hard days’ travel to make the journey. He then walked the entire distance, two hundred miles, from Metis to Quebec, in five days. When he arrived at Bytown (now Ottawa city), he crossed the Ottawa river, and was driven to Aylmer in a vehicle called a stage, a distance of nine miles, by a man named Moses Holt, who is still alive, though bordering on his one hundredth year. The next day he took passage in a bark canoe, working his way as far as Fitzroy Harbor, a small village on the south banks of the Upper Ottawa. The following day he embarked on the steamerGeorge Buchanan,which at her best could not steam more than five miles an hour, and came on with her as far as Farrel’s Wharf, in the township of Horton. The distance from this point to Pembroke by the then route was nearly fifty miles, and our dauntless young Scotch settler accomplished the distance in a day and a half, arriving at his destination in good health and spirits. At this time it took a traveller three days from Ottawa to Pembroke, and now the journey can be made in about as many hours. In January, 1842, he began his career as a teacher in Pembroke, the settlers having erected for him a log school-house, in the bush, and agreeing to pay him a salary of forty pounds ($60) and board for a year, which, we may say, was not always promptly paid. However, our young teacher was satisfied, and his indomitable pluck carried him through all difficulties, and he is now one of the leading men in his county. For about three years Mr. Irving filled the office of clerk of the township and village of Pembroke, and was Division Court clerk for over twenty years. In 1861 he was chosen county treasurer, and held the office until 1875. He was local superintendent of education for a part of the county before the law abolishing this office came into force; and was a member of the Board of Education for a number of years, during three of which he acted as its chairman. In 1861 he was appointed a justice of the peace; and for upwards of ten years was license inspector. In 1866 he was appointed registrar of the county of Renfrew, and this office he still holds, and devotes all his time to the performance of his duties. Mr. Irving has always taken a deep interest in municipal affairs, and it was he who during the years from 1861 to 1865 led in the county town struggle for Renfrew county, and it has since been conceded by both friends and foes that it was through his good management that Pembroke came off victorious. He has been an ardent politician, and was always found fighting in the Reform ranks. On one occasion, during a hard election contest, he was approached by an old and valued friend, and offered a lucrative office if he withdrew his opposition to the government candidate, but, with true Scotch pride, he replied, “My principles are my own; they are neither those of John A. Macdonald or George Brown, and you would think very little of me if I would abandon them for any such offer.” This answer led to an estrangement between him and his friend, but after some years his friend admitted he was right, and so the matter was forgotten. Unfortunately Mr. Irving is not so liberal in his religious views as he is in his political. He is a very strict Presbyterian; and the highest of Calvinists, and would resist to the death any innovation or reform in his church standards. In 1844 he was married to Jane Reid, the eldest daughter of the late Peter Whyte, the first settler in Pembroke. She died in 1852, and two of her children survive her. He again married in 1860, his second choice being Mary, daughter of the late Doctor William Cannon, of the Royal navy. This lady is still alive, and has been the mother of five children, four of whom are living.